In the design of lithium organic electrolyte cells, it is normally expected that any chemically inert electronically conducting material can be used as a lithium anode substrate. This is so, because of the cathodic protection resulting from the high negative potential of the lithium anode. Thus, it is a usual practice to use a mild steel, stainless steel, copper or nickel material for the lithium electrode substrate.
In actual practice, however, catalytic reduction reactions involving the electrolyte may occur at the exposed substrate surface. While the high negative potential of the lithium will protect the metal substrate from dissolving due to corrosion, the electrolyte cannot be protected by this potential from reacting at the surface of the substrate polarized to a high negative potential by the lithium. Therefore, the use of lithium electrode substrates consisting solely of a base metal of steel, copper or nickel cannot be used. This problem is particularly acute with dioxolane-based electrolytes employed in Li/TiS.sub.2 cells.
The invention seeks to provide a solution to the above-mentioned problem by rendering the substrate material inactive or noncatalytic with respect to the dioxolane-containing electrolyte.